Running with Purpose! -- The AllEars running team will be participating in the January 2014 WDW full and/or half marathon. Co-Captains Mike Scopa and Michelle Scribner-MacLean will provide information, tips and stories to help folks train for the event. All team members are also fundraising for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Who Is Team AllEars

Over the past year, I've been repeatedly asked about the team and who we are.....the following is a summary of some of the key points I've used in describing the team.....

Who are we? Team AllEars, over 100 strong.

Professionally we are a cross section. From teachers to students, engineers and sellers of ball bearings, administrators, PhDs and an accountant (or two); consultants, podcasters and nurses by the bunch. Vets who are retired, school kids, bankers, homemakers and even a cartoonist. On and on our professions range and on paper we are diversified in our background, our training and our vocations. While we are a team, it is our individuality that united us.

Individually we are mothers, daughters, sisters. Fathers, sons, brothers. Grandparents, grandkids, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces and Nephews. Significant others. And while we hold multiple roles in our family, mother to some, daughter to others, it’s our other roles that bring us here. Survivors, fighters and supporters of each. And sadly, tribute makers honoring those who could not be there, remembering friends and family alike. Keeping their memories alive, for ourselves and for their families. In this we are all sharing a common purpose.

Our purpose is Active Remembrance. Active not in our thoughts, but by our actions. We walk, we run, we Galloway. We strive with each step to reclaim a sense of control for ourselves and for those who are impacted by Breast Cancer, by cancer, by any life changing malady. For the survivors and fighters it’s a chance to physically reclaim not just the body, but the spirit. And for the supporters and remembers we are doing it for those who can’t, a physical tribute to lay claim to the idea that with each step you are not forgotten. We do this with a determined goal.

Our goal was to raise money….and boy did we ever. $79,027, to be exact, for this year alone; and just under $225,000 since the team began. Though impressive, we don’t measure our success in dollars…..we measure it by impact. And what an impact we are having, roughly:

• 1200 meals for homebound breast cancer patients will be delivered
• 200 mammograms or bone scans for uninsured patients will be done
• 200 uninsured patients now have access to chemotherapy
• 100 people will have bloodwork to identify the best course of treatment for their breast cancer

While we don’t know the specifics of how our contributions are used, we do know that either through some subset of the mechanisms above, or in the funding of research that will spawn cures. By meeting our financial goals, we are not collecting dollars, we are impacting lives.

This is Team AllEars, 100 strong. A running team of professionals, of individuals, with a common purpose and a shared goal. We are “In It to End It” and our focus isn’t on winning the 5K, the Half or Even the Full (except for Eddie, he would like to win each) it is on winning the race to a cure.